Eckert Jury Out

A jury in Sanford, Florida began considering the fate of Chester Warlocks patch holder Robert “Willie” Eckert this afternoon. Eckert stands accused of three counts of second degree murder for the shooting deaths of Harold “Lil Dave” Liddle, Peter “Hormone” Schlette and Dave “Dresser” Jakiela and two counts of attempted murder resulting from the wounding of Brad Dyess and Ronnie “Whiteboy” Mitchell.

Four men faced the same set of charges after the shootings in the parking lot of a VFW Post in Winter Springs, Florida on September 30, 2012. Eckert is the third to go on trial.

David “Tin Man” Maloney was acquitted of all three murder counts and one of the attempted murder counts two weeks ago. A jury was unable to agree about whether Maloney tried to murder Mitchell or acted in self defense. A mistrial was declared after four days of argument and testimony in the trial of Victor Manuel “Pancho” Amaro on the same charges last week. Paul Wayne Smith’s trial was scheduled to begin May 5 but Rene Stutzman of the Orlando Sentinel continues to report that no trial is scheduled for Smith.

The Defendants

All four men have claimed self defense.

Eckert declined to take the stand to testify in his own defense. Police allege that he fired a total of three shots during the fatal encounter and that none of those bullets struck anyone.

Prosecutor Stewart Stone told jurors that Eckert should be found guilty of the murders because he participated in the gunfight. “You participate in these kinds of events, you’re going to be held responsible,” Stone said.

Prosecutors have argued that Amaro actually fired the shots that killed Liddle and Jakiela. According to multiple witnesses Smith fired the shots that started the battle and that killed Schlette.

Self Defense

In his closing argument, Stone also told jurors that Eckert and the other accused men “waited to confront them (the victims) with guns in their hands.”

But the essence of the four cases has been whether greeting the victims with drawn guns was prudent or reckless. Maloney had a bitter history with the motorcycle club to which all five of the victims belonged – the Florida Warlocks. He had been expelled from that club, had been found to have acted in self-defense when he shot a member of the Florida Warlocks in 2011 and he testified that he was afraid for his life when he armed himself and told the other defendants to arm themselves.

“I figured they were there to kill me…all of us…” Maloney said at his trial. “They’ve told us numerous times they wanted us dead. They told me I had to leave the state of Florida. Shutting us down meant they were going to kill us…. My office was about a mile from my house. So, whenever I would leave my house, I would never leave in the same direction. I would never come home the same way. I never went to work the same time. I varied my routes all the time.”

The story I read says sentencing is on Monday. Convict on Friday afternoon, sentence on Monday?
Of course, this is all coming from a nitwit of a “reporter.” The last line in her story is outrageous. She still doesn’t know what is going on and then takes a piss in the pool of potential jurors:

“There is no trial date yet for the fourth co-defendant, Smith, 49 of Effingham, S.C., whose bullets killed one of the victims.”

Orlando Sentinel reporting they found this cat guilty and he got 20 years. Far as I know this guy got off 3 shots & hit nobody. #2 hit/killed 2 & #4 (yet to come) hit/killed 1. #2 got mistrial because they metioned his prior felony record & is to be retried. #4’s fate is uncertain in that he doesn’t have a court date yet. And, #1 was found “we aren’t sure, can you please repeat the question” & may or may not be retried on the manslaughter rap. So, #1 & #3 shot but missed, #2 shot & killed 2 & #4 shot and killed 1. WESH Channel 2 was live streaming closing agruements on #1 and Wowee Zowee we’re those mouth pieces just plain awful. I think #3 getting found guilty was a matter of it going into delibertion on a Friday and the jury wanting to cut bait and go home for the weekend. I agree with the commenter who said a more blue collar jury would do a better job but I’d say having trials on Native American Reservations would be even better. Also, any jury who gives a convict the death penalty should have to be there to see that it’s carried out properly, front row seats maybe even throw the switch or whatever makes it happen and if I was the condemned I’d take the death penalty over Life w/o parole and the sooner the better. What I’ve seen on the inside ain’t no way I’d want to live out my days. Just my preference.

Got FTW in big letters on my gas tank. Told the last Cop who asked about it, it stood for Fight To Win, stupid fucker shook his head and walked away. Taking my dentures out and cleaning them with my tounge while being harassed by this fuck seemed to divert his short attention span. And, getting out of Jury Duty is simple, just have no fixed address or be an ex-con or as George Carlin once said, “Look the judge straight in the eye and say, I’d make a great juror your honor, I can spot a guilty guy (snaps fingers) just like that”!

Regardless of who you believe is guilty or whatever, this has been one of the best examples of a clusterfuck I’ve seen in a long time. Appeals should be a piece of cake.

@Sieg
I, too, would like to know the complete answers to who did what to whom, but coverage has been incomplete at best. It would be nice if we could watch the trial over the Internet. I understand there are people who have sat through all three trials so far, and the best coverage in any one place, I have seen, is here on the Aging Rebel site.

Based on what I have seen, here and in the commercial press, I think the entire confrontation was manipulated and deliberately set up by the LEO. Meth users are very easy to manipulate by inducing paranoia. Although, as far as I know, the heavy drug use has not come up in the trial, it was definitely part of the reason for the bad blood between some of the Harpies and the Warbirds, according to some people who are familiar with events.

I think you nailed it in your description of the responsibilities/possibilities of jury duty. For decades, I have been trying to get my friends in the building trades to serve on juries when they are unemployed, without much success, I admit. I make sure I serve when called. I’ve had some damn strange experiences…

@jj solari
I think serving on a jury CAN be a great experience, but it usually sucks. If more blue collar workers served on juries, I think we might actually see more justice. As it is, we see bored retirees and white collar workers (who get paid while serving) making up the majority of jurors. Naturally, they misunderstand the world where you and I live.

In my home county, as jurors, we get paid the munificent total of SIX DOLLARS A DAY, which does not even cover the cost of daily parking near the courthouse. Blue collar workers can get excused easily if their employer does not pay during jury duty. As a result, we usually get juries made up of suburban soccer moms and junior executives. If these trials took place in my county, all four would get the death penalty, and even the surviving victims would probably get life…

I’m no expert on Jury Duty and I can’t recall ever hearing of anyone getting busted for not showing up for it. I’m sure it’s probably happened like the IRS doing randum audits so tax payers will go out and tell their friends they got audited to put the fear of God into the general public. But really, does anyone have any stats on how many people get busted for not showing up for Jury Duty? Again, not saying it doesn’t happen, just curious as to how many people get locked up for it. There’s some pretty smart folks here, surely one of you knows about this shit. I’m not a regestered voter and the common wisdom is that’s where they get their victims although I’ve heard they use the DMV too.

Jurors are, de facto, sitting against their will. When you get a summons to sit on a jury, they don’t ask if you want to, they inform you that if you don’t report for jury duty, you will be arrested.

In theory, a jury is a wonderful thing. Problems arise from the lack of understanding most people have about their jury “duty”. Most never realize that they have the DUTY to neutralize unjust laws and unjust prosecutions by voting against the law itself, not simply voting the guilt or innocence of the party’s being tried.

In this case…shit, who knows?! This whole scenario is so whacked-out that I don’t believe anyone that wasn’t there, and fully-immersed in the happenings, could possibly know who was actually guilty of what.

But that’s just me, and just like the people on the jury, the people out in tv-land, and the other people commenting here, I have no fucking clue as to who did what to who.

If I were on the jury, I’d be inclined to cut them all loose, and let the two clubs TCB on their own.

since the jurors and the defendant are the only people in the courtroom there against their will and under threat of punishment i’m amazed that any jury returns a guilty verdict. that’s how stupid jurors are. they love getting and meting out punishment.